Earthquake, Tsunami, and Revolution
by José Luis StevensWelcome to 2011. Dictators topple in Egypt and Algeria, civil war breaks out in Libya, social unrest boils to the surface all over the Mideast, floodwaters drown towns and countryside from the United states to Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Australia, volcanoes erupt, and now a record breaking and devastating earthquake and tsunami strikes Japan. It is only mid March so fasten your seatbelts for there is much to come.
We have said that 2011 is a water year and certainly the element of water has been creating change everywhere. We also mentioned that water would be hot as we are seeing in the attempts to cool down the severely damaged nuclear reactors in Japan. Aggression is the mode for the year and as you can readily see, aggression is not limited to human expression but, because human emotion and Mother Nature are interconnected, severe aggression affects the intensity of earthquakes and tsunamis. Mather Nature is waking up and in her tossing and turning she will not be gentle. The environment itself will become aggressive because it is on the move and has much to shake up and rebalance.
Because of the emphasis on water, the oceans are a place of particular emphasis and focus during these times. We will learn much from the oceans including alternative resources and how the oceans affect our lives and environments. The earthquake took place under the sea and it is the sea that has caused the greater part of the damage in Japan. This is only the first of many lessons offered by the oceans.
The events in Japan appear to be external to us as we watch with mind numbing fascination the shaking of the land and torrents of water washing away peoples’ livelihoods, their homes, and even their loved ones. Yet the earthquake and the tsunami are also internal events that influence people over the entire planet. They are deep psychic events that shake up our belief systems, wash away the retaining walls in the mind, and shift our collective assemblage points. These internal events are so massive that they spill out into our physical environments and dreamscape reality. When you watch the images of devastation on the television and computer screen, realize that this kind of insta-mega-change is taking place within you at the deepest levels. Certainly there are those human beings who are so shut down as to be unaware of this but if you are the slightest bit awake you will notice that you are not immune to the changes taking place all around the world.
Your dreams may be weird or supercharged, your sleep may be disturbed, extra deep, or unstable, your appetite may be all over the place, and so on. Some of you may notice bouts of extreme fatigue for periods of time alternating with hyper energy and then back again. In addition you may notice ringing in your ears or strange aches and pains with no known origin. These are just a few of the kind of seismic shifts taking place within you and these will most likely increase in the weeks and months to come.
So when you read about what Japan is going through or watch images on your computer screen or on television, realize that these events are happening within us in what appears to be externally over there. There is literally no escape. Now as these events intensify and happen with ever increasing frequency there are those unstable people who will not adjust well. Some of these people will become psychotic due to the stress of change. Others may fall into depression and believe all is lost and the world is at an end. Still others may act out and behave poorly, especially because of the aggressive nature of the times. You will have to decide what is best regarding each occurrence and choose to keep you distance if that seems best. Remember that the news media is prone is dramatize the worst events and the worst behavior so realize that these people will get more than their share of publicity. There will be many more positive events taking place that are simply not newsworthy but they will be affecting you too.
Because we are not separate from events in other places, we are in a unique position not only to be influenced by them, but in turn to influence them in return. Fear is not a helpful response even though it could be seen as normal or a natural human response. Fear only adds to the mass of fearful thoughts being generated by those directly involved in the crisis and those far away who feel it could somehow hurt them. Compassion is a healthy response as is gratitude for being alive and somehow unscathed. There is a most healthy response unique to human beings called reframing. We, among mammals, are unique in our ability to experience something that might appear negative or painful and reframe it as something that may have a positive outcome. In fact, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan are part of a great series of events that will change life on this planet as we know it. Although very limited in relation to the size of the planet, the fact that Japan has moved some four meters and shifted Earths axis ever so slightly will have massive repercussions over time. These shifts are like the grain of sand that shifts on the top of a mountain causing more grains to move pebbles, then stones resulting in an avalanche that changes the face of the entire mountain and valley below it. Because of these shifts, the ones in Sumatra, and other ones coming, there will be changing weather patterns and climate changes all over the world. The result will be a mini ice age that completely changes the weather patterns on this planet for a period of time. This in turn will eliminate species, change agricultural patterns, and create enormous challenges for the human race. Whole cultures will be forced to change.
Now in order to understand the big picture a little better let us focus on what influences us in the greater environment. The galaxy rotates just as the earth does and it rather slowly undulates similar to the motion of a spinning amusement ride. Thus the apparently stable Earth is spinning on its axis, rotating around the sun, and also riding a giant wheel that is rotating as well. During that rotating ride it is moving upward and downward. As it travels through space it is going through different neighborhoods and is exposed to a variety of variables including episodic bursts of radiation communication from the galactic center. Its journey through space is like our journey through life, always being exposed to something new. Right about now the Solar System is passing though the midpoint of its undulation up and down vis a vis the galactic center. This movement is creating huge changes in our Sun and all the planets of our Solar System including Earth. The Earth has begun passage through a dynamic phase where the stellar influences are acting much like a pressure cooker to events within it and on its surface. This pressurized environment will take approximately six months from the spring equinox almost upon us. A pressure cooker is a handy cooking tool in that it accelerates the cooking process vastly but it is also volatile and slightly dangerous in that the pressure can build to explosive proportions. You either end up with a wonderful meal cooked in a fraction of the time or food all over the walls. This is what is taking place on the Earth at this time.
The Spring Equinox will be accompanied by a full moon just to add to its intensity. Expect the weekend of March 20th to be intense to say the least. All this is happening on the heels of Uranus moving into Aries, or in other words unpredictable change powered up to many multiples. Is it any surprise that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan has taken place at this time?
What to expect
Unless you are in one of those drought stricken areas like the American Southwest, carry your umbrella and maybe your wading boots, perhaps even a small boat. There will be lots of water and not just any ordinary water but water in a state of unrest, water on the move. Some way or another some of that water will be hot, perhaps melted from the sides of some volcano or blown out of the ground after some shaking and shifting. Earthquakes are a certainty as Pachamama or Mother Earth purifies herself and readies herself for her own changes. Yes, the Earth is conscious and has its own evolutionary journey just like everything else.
At times you may be experiencing states of confusion where you feel that you don’t exactly recognize the place you call home. When the world goes through such dramatic events as in Japan the assemblage point of the collective shifts, causing everything to look unfamiliar. You may get in your car only to feel that the controls feel unfamiliar to you or it may simply feel a little strange. You may look at a tree that you love and feel strangely flat as if you have no feelings at all. You may find it hard to get your focus and wander around your house getting nothing done. You may feel extremely spaced out or forgetful. At work the projects you have been working on may feel unfamiliar and you might struggle to get back that feeling like you know exactly what they are all about. You may ask, “Why are we working on this?” Watch for your priorities to change when you look at your list of all the things you need to do and you do not feel they are important any more. You might worry that something strange is happening to you but there is no cause for alarm. Nothing bad is happening. These feelings are temporary. You are merely feeling the change of the flow of information that is constantly coming to you through the sun’s rays, the solar winds, and the galactic winds streaming from the center of the Milky Way. These winds and rays are loaded with condensed information, the latest news of the cosmos and what it is up to. As you are bathed in this information it changes you and informs you and prepares you for what comes next.
Although you can try to prepare yourself for the environmental changes coming you would do better by preparing yourself for the massive changes that will be occurring within. Now is the time to become quiet inside. Now is the time to clean out the negativity and dross energies dragging you down. Now is the time to focus on what is most important, your values and your philosophy, your spirituality and what inspires you the most. This would be an excellent time to cease complaining, to erase blaming, to look and see how you can serve in the most effective way. The future does not belong to the individual struggling alone. It belongs to cooperative efforts, everyone working together for everyone’s benefit. It belongs to real humans, not corporations with legal human status. The future belongs not to the corporate shareholder but to the shareholders of the beauty of the planet, those who honor nature and work cooperatively with her.
Be Ready, Be Free
The theme for this month and these times is be ready. Be prepared.
Whatever you are ready for, you will experience. If you ready yourself for war then that is what you can expect. If you ready yourself for starvation then that is what will beset you. If you ready yourself by adjusting your attitude then you will be ready for something inspirational. Move away from fear into acceptance and you will not be in a state of resistance to what is happening. Embrace the changes without, embrace the changes within, and you will find that you are in the flow, not drowned underneath the weight of struggle and resistance.
One of the primary themes of these times is Freedom. Some revolutions will succeed and some will fail. If you want to succeed then it is best to have the motivation to seek freedom to do something fresh rather than simply having the motivation to be free from the old. There is a big difference between the two. Yes, you may want to overthrow the tyranny of your past, of your beliefs, of your habits, of your addictions. That is fine but what do you want to replace them with? What do you want to do with your new found freedom? Have something you are seeking and you will find it.
Now if you look closely at the USA you will find people seeking all kinds of things. Some people want freedom from all taxation, every man woman for herself. Others want the freedom to do whatever they want without any regulations whatsoever. Are these effective motivations? Not really. These are the desires of a child who briefly dreams of having no parents to control them like the story book, “Where the Wild Things Are.” The reality is that without some structure, they are lost. Uprisings around the world are somewhat like this. Unless there is enough of a dream about what to do with freedom, it will be lost again and again. The reason the American Revolution succeeded was that there were clearly stated objectives about what the sought after freedoms were for, to worship freely, to gather freely, to have representation freely and so on. Be ready by knowing what you are looking for.
Another reason the American Revolution succeeded was that the founding fathers were a group of old souls with vast experience who knew what they were doing. A group of loud baby souls in revolt over structure does not a revolution win. Therefore within the United States and other nations there will be much social unrest over many issues and themes. Only mature and old souls have the vision and the wherewithal to get the job done without simply recreating the recent past. As you look around the world and see the various states of unrest and the movements for change you will see that those with vision have a better chance of success.
Most of all remember that revolutions and civil unrest are all symbolic of the revolution within that is now in high gear. Revolution by its very nature is highly uncomfortable and the tendency is to go into heavy resistance. Do you have an inner Gadhafi trying to stamp all revolt out, trying to prevent change from taking place. Perhaps you would do best to let the revolution happen. Let the revolutionaries win for a change. More than likely you need a big change. If you are not happy with the status quo, an inner revolt will probably lead you to changes that will restore your happiness and enjoyment of life. Don’t forget that life is to be enjoyed. The purpose of life is not suffering no matter what you were taught.
Some of you who are highly sensitive to change may feel strange or anxious prior to some big events like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, revolutions, terrorist acts, or events where many lives are lost. Some of you might feel more troubled afterward. Whatever the case, your grounding has most likely been disturbed or lost. Take a warm bath. Extend a grounding cord deep into the earth from your tailbone. Take your shoes off and go outside and plant your feet on the ground for a little while. Say hello to the Earth. Reset yourself just like you might reset an electronic device after much use. No need to get stuck or to remain in an anxious state.
To summarize, more huge events like the recent earthquake and tsunami are a certainty. There will be much social unrest and revolutionary spirit around the world. To try to predict their timing or whereabouts would be sheer folly given the unpredictable nature of our times. Be ready. Be prepared. Realize that all these external events have their parallel in your psyche. Earthquakes are happening within you. Tsunamis are happening to your deep structure. Revolutions may need to take place in your belief systems and in your behavior. Embrace change, open your heart, see how you can be of service. Let go of obsessing about how you can head off disaster or preparing for the worst. Make people glad you are alive. Ahhh, that’s better.
3/16/2011
New Article by José Stevens
Bret Easton Ellis: Notes on Charlie Sheen and the End of Empire - The Daily Beast
And yet he always managed to show up to work and has not hurt the reputation of Two and a Half Men despite the drugs, the whoring, and the mid-life crisis. Compared to Cruise, Sheen has put on a mesmerizing and refreshing display of mid-life crisis honesty—he’s just himself, an addict, take it or leave it (the Empire regime at CBS decided to leave it no matter what the legalities are). On Piers Morgan and 20/20 and the uncut TMZ interview Sheen doesn’t seem like he’s on drugs. Look, you don’t do drugs and then want to give TV interviews. You do drugs and want to bang hookers in Vegas while smoking a carton of Marlboro Lights and downing three bottles of Patron Silver. You don’t do blow and then chat with Andrea Canning on ABC who looks both horrified and also, um, charmed. (Hey? Wanna know a secret, Andrea? Partying is fun. Addiction is hell but partying is a fucking blast.) These interviews don’t seem erratic to me. (He’s taken various drug tests and passed them all.) The TMZ interview is a major post-Empire triumph and I thought he looked great on CNN. Piers Morgan, after an uneven month (try watching the Empire attitude of the Winklevoss twins and not cross your eyes) seemed, finally, happily excited with Sheen’s aggressive transparency. Compare this to how bored Piers was with Janet Jackson’s Empire interview, complete with evasive pauses that lasted so long you could have rolled boulders through them, and Sheen’s honesty made Piers seem almost positively orgasmic. (Imagine Sheen being interviewed by Oprah. Sheen refusing to bow and apologize to the Empress might actually cause her face to melt off and her head to explode.) Sheen seems like a genuinely interesting person now. Maybe a wreck, but REAL. Transparency: that’s where Charlie’s at—sorry, Dr. Drew, it’s just not as logical as you think it is. So Sheen is in the strange new position of defining what that exactly means for a celebrity in post-Empire.
It’s thrilling watching someone call out the solemnity of the celebrity interview, and Charlie Sheen is loudly calling it out as the sham it is. He’s raw now, and lucid and intense and the most fascinating person wandering through the culture. (No, it’s not Colin Firth or David Fincher or Bruno Mars or super-Empire Tiger Woods, guys.) We’re not used to these kinds of interviews. It’s coming off almost as performance art and we’ve never seen anything like it—because he’s not apologizing for anything. It’s an irresistible spectacle, but it’s also telling because we are watching someone profoundly bored and contemptuous of the media engaging with the media and using the media to admit things about themselves and their desires that seem “shocking” because of society’s old-ass Empire guidelines. No one has ever seen a celebrity more nakedly revealing—even in Sheen’s evasions there’s a truthful playfulness that makes Tiger’s mea culpa press conference look like something manufactured by Nicholas Sparks.
The people unable to process Sheen’s honesty can’t do this because it’s so unlike the pre-fab way celebrity presented itself within the Empire. Anyone who has put up with the fake rigors of celebrity (or has addiction problems) has got to find a kindred spirit here. The new fact is: if you’re punching a paparazzo, you now look like an old-school loser. If you can’t accept the fact that we’re at the height of an exhibitionistic display culture and that you’re going to be blindsided by TMZ (and humiliated by Harvey Levin, or Chelsea Handler—princess of post-Empire) walking out of a club on Sunset at 2 in the morning trashed, then you’re basically fucked and you should become a travel agent instead of a movie star. Being publicly mocked is part of the game now and you’re a fool if you don’t play along with it and are still enacting the role of humble, grateful celebrity instead of embracing your fucked-up-ness. Gaga’s little monsters, anyone? Not showing up to collect your award at the Razzies for that piece of shit you made? So Empire. This is why Charlie seems saner and funnier than any other celebrity right now. He also makes better jokes about his situation than most worried editorialists or late-night comedians. A lot of it is sheer bad-boy bravado—just saying shit to see how people react, which is very post-Empire—but a lot of it is transparent, and on that level, Sheen is, um, winning. And I’m not sure being fired from Two and a Half Men and having to wear those horrible rockabilly bowling shirts for another two years is, um, losing…
What do people want from Charlie Sheen? Knowing more details about the benders and the porn stars and the trumped-up anti-Semitism (well, yeah, maybe, whatever) and being a “womanizer” (what the fuck does that archaic term mean)? What has been labeled “freakery” is really just a bored, pissed-off celebrity whose presence helps make a TV network an insane amount of money and by comparison is paid accordingly. When I tweeted “I love Charlie Sheen” on February 28 after watching him on the Piers Morgan show (and no, I wasn’t being ironic), the number of tweets I received agreeing with me (not ironically) from both men and women was a surprise. (It was the fastest I had been RT’d since something I tossed off about Angry Birds a couple of months ago.) Look, I’m not denying he has drug and alcohol problems, and perhaps even struggles with mental illness, but so do a lot of people in Hollywood who hide it so much better or that the celebrity press just doesn’t care enough about, and I’m not denying that Sheen is exploiting a problematic situation that he has helped create. But you can’t step around the fact that the negativity certain people feel about Sheen has never outweighed our fascination with the hedonism Charlie enjoys and which remains the envy of any man—if only women weren’t around to keep them liars. His supposed propensity for violence against women hasn’t hurt his popularity with female fans either (and if you want to get into what that means then that is a whole other story for another article—or about fifty books. Jezebel.com take note.) And, of course, if Sheen was a rock star (another anachronistic term from the Empire), not many people would be paying attention.
Do they really want manners? Civility? Empire courtesy? No. They want reality, no matter how crazy the celeb who brings it on has become. And this is what enflames CBS and the Empire press (but also gives them boners while they’re wringing their hands): Charlie Sheen doesn’t care what you think of him anymore, and he scoffs at the idea that anyone even thinks there’s such a thing as PR taboo. “Hey suits, I don’t give a shit, you suck,” is what so many of the disenfranchised have responded to. Charlie Sheen blows open the myth that men will outgrow the adolescent pursuit of pleasure, the dream of a life without rules or responsibilities; even if they have children, a flicker of that dream always remains. Charlie Sheen: Truth! Score! We’ve come a long way in the last ten days: Charlie Sheen is the new reality, bitch, and anyone who’s a hater can go back and hang out with the rest of the trolls in the Empire’s dank graveyard. No one knew it in 1986, but Charlie Sheen was actually Ferris Bueller’s dark little brother all along…
Bret Easton Ellis is the author of five previous novels including, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Glamorama, and Lunar Park, and a collection of stories, The Informers. His most recent book, Imperial Bedrooms.
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com.
